


a rose by any other name

by sunlitseas



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Aka: using british terms because i CAN, Alternate Universe, F/F, First Kiss, Flirting, Fluff, Happy Ending, Meet-Cute, POV Jamie, This is still self indulgent, no ghosts to be found tyvm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27778045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunlitseas/pseuds/sunlitseas
Summary: No one comes in to claim a rose until an hour before closing, when two children drag a young blonde woman through the door, chattering excitedly.Jamie blinks. She’s had a few more customers from out of town recently, but none of them were as pretty as the woman who was currently walking up to the counter, hand clutching a child on each side.As they, she catches a snatch of conversation and something clicks. The accent. The children.She’s the American nanny.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 14
Kudos: 242





	a rose by any other name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [harleyhearts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/harleyhearts/gifts).



> Happy Birthday once again Lennon! I love you millions and I hope you enjoy this gift of happy ghost-free lesbians.

Moon Flowers does pretty well as a business, generally speaking. They don’t have a lot of competition as far as florists go in Bly, just a couple of shops in the neighbouring towns. When the locals need flowers, they come to her. Which is why Jamie immediately rolls her eyes at Owen’s suggestion.

“I think you’re overestimating exactly how many people live here, Owen. It’ll stop working after a week.” She tells him as he lifts a spoon for her to taste. 

She nods her approval and Owen turns back to the stove, shaking his head.

“You’re forgetting about visitors.” Hannah calls out from the living room. “We do occasionally get some of those you know.”

“Not enough.” Jamie grumbles, leaning against the worktop and crossing her arms over her chest.

Her friends have recently decided that she could be doing more to entice visitors into the shop. She doesn’t entirely disagree, it’s just that offering a free rose to people with different names every day doesn’t seem to her to be the best way to do that

Owen sighs, and turns away from the casserole.

“Look, worst case scenario- you try it out, it doesn’t really work, and you just don’t have to give out any free roses to anyone. Apart from us of course. We should be the first names up there, obviously.” 

He winks at her, badly.

Jamie can’t help but grin. “I’ll think about it.” She concedes, throwing her hands up in defeat.

“That’s probably the best we could hope for.” Hannah muses, walking into the kitchen and slipping an arm round Owen’s waist. She sniffs at the food approvingly. 

“I’ll lay the table.” Jamie offers, giving the couple some space as she walks to the other side of the kitchen.

As they chat over dinner, she can’t help but feel the lonely ache that often comes over with observing two people who are so clearly enamoured with one another.

The dating pool in the village was already miserably small without the added complication of Jamie’s lack of interest in men. At this point she had resigned herself to being Owen and Hannah’s tag along for life. 

Usually she was okay with that, but right now it was eating at her.

Despite all her complaining and protesting, Jamie gives in and writes out a sign to put up in the shop window on Monday morning, informing passersby of the offer of a free rose if they see their name.

She starts out with Hannah, at Owen’s request,

The few visitors she has that day seem to be fond of the idea, cheekily reminding her of their names. She notes them down after they’ve left.

When Hannah comes in on her lunch break, Jamie hands her a rose with a smile which her friend returns.

“Am I the first Hannah to receive a rose?” She asks, leaning against the counter and admiring the flower.

“You are. I’m not sure there’s any others around today. But all the customers seem really interested.” Jamie replies. “It’s a good idea.” She adds, somewhat grudgingly. 

Hannah tries her best not to look too smug, but fails miserably. “I know it is. That’s why we suggested it.”

Another Hannah does come into the shop, in the late afternoon after the schools have let out. A girl no older than seven, who seems completely delighted to be given her very own rose and her mother decides to buy a bouquet for the house while she’s there. Jamie’s smile stays on her face for the rest of the day

A week after Jamie starts the ‘name-for-a-rose’ scheme, she’s sharing a bottle of wine with Hannah as they wait for Owen to close up the restaurant, when her friend suddenly remembers a vital piece of gossip.

“There’s someone new in town.” She tells her, leaning over the table conspirationally. “An American, if you can believe it.”

Jamie pauses with her glass halfway to her mouth. “You’re fucking with me.” She narrows her eyes. 

“I’m not. She’s become a live-in nanny for the Wingraves.”

The Wingraves lived in a huge house just outside the central village, an uncle and his niece and nephew. She did hear he was looking for a carer for the children while he worked up in London.

“An American.” Jamie takes a sip of the wine. “That should make things interesting around here.” 

The names for the last week had been relatively random, but Jamie decided that this week they’ll have somewhat of a theme to them. Flower-inspired names. She was weirdly proud of the idea.

She starts out with ‘Flora’, although it’s not as common as others, it’s the most literal. It feels right.

No one comes in to claim a rose until an hour before closing, when two children drag a young blonde woman through the door, chattering excitedly.

Jamie blinks. She’s had a few more customers from out of town recently, but none of them were as pretty as the woman who was currently walking up to the counter, hand clutching a child on each side.

As they, she catches a snatch of conversation and something clicks. The accent. The children.

She’s the American nanny.

Jamie snaps out of her reverie just as they reach her.

The nanny greets her with a bright smile.

“Hi. We saw your sign in the window, about the roses.” She starts.

The little Wingrave girl, peering over the counter, chirps in excitedly. “My name is Flora. That means I get a rose right?” 

Blonde nanny gives Jamie an apologetic look.

Jamie wonders if she ever stops smiling.

“That’s right.” she tells Flora, reaching down to grab a rose from the bucket. 

“Here you go.” Flora takes the rose from her with an impossibly huge grin.

Her brother, who had been quiet until this moment, suddenly pipes up.

“My name is Miles. Will I get a rose too?” 

The American looks from her charge to Jamie. Her eyes are a gorgeous shade of blue-grey, she notices.

“Of course you will.” She blurts out quickly. “I’ll add your name to the list.”

“Can you add mine too?” the beautiful nanny asks in her American twang.

“Sure.” Jamie straightens. “Can I ask what it is?”

“Oh” the nameless nanny blinks. “Of course. It’s Dani- well, Danielle, technically, but no one ever calls me that. Dani might work better though, if you do it with multiple spellings.” She stops talking suddenly, seemingly realising that she’s rambling.

Jamie thinks she could’ve listened to her talk all day.

“I’ll put them both down. Maybe you’ll end up getting two.” 

Dani flushes a pretty pink.

“Thank you…” she trails off. Waiting for Jamie to offer her own name.

“I’m Jamie.” She sticks out a hand.

Dani looks confused for a moment. Americans.

But she reaches out to take it regardless. Her palm feels soft and warm against Jamie’s skin.

Flora tugs on Dani’s sleeve, and she breaks their handshake.

“Well, we have to get going. It was really nice meeting you Jamie. I’m sure we’ll be back for more roses soon.” She smiles at her again, and Jamie’s stomach flutters.

“I hope so.” she replies without really thinking about it.

Dani’s grin seems to grow impossibly wider.

“So I met the American on Monday.” Jamie announces over dinner on Wednesday..

“She came into the shop?” Owen asks, fork halfway to his mouth.

“You took this long to tell us?” Hannah says at the same time.

Jamie sighs into her drink.  
“It didn’t seem like breaking news at the time. And yeah, she came in with the Wingrave kids. Flora and Miles.”

“That was the Flora you gave the rose to?” Hannah turns to Owen halfway through her sentence. “I told you she had a flowery name.” 

Owen shakes his head fondly.

“Yeah. The nanny’s name is Danielle. Dani. She seemed sweet.” 

“Maybe you should introduce us.” Owen suggests lightly, although he’s barely concealing a grin.

He exchanges a look with Hannah.

“You should! If she’s so sweet.” Hannah teases.

Jamie flushes. “Shut up.” She mutters under her breath.

After the ‘Flower Week’, as Owen and Hannah had taken to calling it, the first name in the window is Danielle.

Jamie feels on edge the entire day. A couple of teenage girls come in giggling around midday and her head snaps up so quick at the sound of the door opening that it leaves her with a crick in her neck.

She gives one of the girls a rose with a perfunctory smile, eyes always on the door waiting for the tell-tale flash of blonde hair or the accent unique to her.

At three in the afternoon, Jamie’s vigil ends.

The nanny enters the shop, alone this time.

Jamie instantly raises a hand in greeting as Dani’s eyes settle on here.

She answers with one of the smiles that Jamie already thinks might be the best thing she’s ever seen. 

“You put my name up.” Dani calls out as she nears her.

“That I did.” Jamie already has the rose in hand. She doesn’t remember picking it up.

She presents it to the nanny, and their fingers brush as the other woman takes it from her.

Dani gives the flower an overenthusiastic sniff, leaning her elbows on the counter and closing her eyes.

Jamie watches her. 

“Miles is next.” She tells her. 

That makes Dani open her eyes and smile again.

Does she ever stop smiling?

“He’ll be happy to hear that.” 

Jamie nods, drumming out a beat with her fingers.

“My friends want you to join us for dinner. On Wednesday.” She gets out before she can overthink it.

Dani blinks. “Really?” 

Jamie ploughs on, bolstered by the fact she hadn’t been immediately refused. 

“Yeah, you know you’re new here and all, we thought it might be good if you had some company outside of the Wingraves.”

The blonde smiles softly twirling the rose in between her fingers. “That sounds really nice.”

“Yeah?” Jamie asks her, voice lifting in surprise.

When Dani nods, Jamie reaches over for a pad of paper and starts scribbling, explaining where Owen’s house is and what to get there and asking if there’s anything she doesn’t eat.

In a bout of optimism, she scribbles her home number at the very bottom.

“In case you ever need anything.” She explains.

Dani seems touched, not creeped out, and Jamie feels the tiniest seed of something starting to bloom in her chest. Hope.

Dani is a fantastic dinner guest. 

She slots into their little group like she’d been there all along, asking about Owen’s restaurant with interest and complimenting Hannah’s outfit and talking excitedly about her new position as the Wingraves' nanny.

At the end of the night, Jamie and Dani say their goodbyes to Hannah and Owen and promise to be careful on the walk home. 

Jamie tucks her hands into the pockets of her jacket and watches the other woman discretely, as they walk in silence. 

Dani suddenly pauses under a lamppost, laying a hand on Jamie’s arm to get her attention.

As if she didn’t have it already.

Jamie watches as the American bits her lip. Almost like she’s nervous.

“I don’t know how to say this.” She starts, eyes darting around until they settle on Jamie like she’s waiting for permission.

When Jamie gives a gentle nod, Dani laughs lightly and looks at the floor.

“I think…if a man had done what you did, with the name and rose and maybe even the dinner...” Dani trails off.

Jamie’s throat feels dry.

Dani looks back up at her and inhales deeply before she speaks again.

“I would’ve assumed he was… flirting with me.” 

Jamie swallows deeply.

Dani’s eyes search her face.

Jamie cuts in before she can say anything else. 

“I never meant to make you feel uncomfortable or anything, I swear I was just-”

“No, no.” Dani cuts in, stepping towards her. “I didn’t mean it was a bad thing.”

“I was flirting too.” She continues, quieter.

“Oh,” Jamie breathes.

She moves closer to Dani, or maybe Dani moves closer to her, until they’re both standing in the small circle of lamplight.

Jamie reaches out, a little shakily, to tug at a loose lock of blonde hair.  
Dani smiles one of those beautiful smiles and steps in to press her lips to Jamie’s, one hand on her face.

She tastes like sunshine.

**Author's Note:**

> Spare kudos and/or comment if you liked? 
> 
> Come say hi on twitter @likeabloodstain and tumblr  @griffinbellamy


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